CINCINNATI — Paul Skenes put his difficult season opener behind him in impressive fashion Wednesday night.
The defending National League Cy Young Award winner bounced back from his worst major league outing to stifle the Cincinnati Reds, surrendering just one run across five innings while fanning five batters in Pittsburgh’s commanding 8-3 victory.
“I’m pretty insulated from a lot of stuff that’s out there. The stuff that I do see or hear, I don’t really care anyway because it doesn’t have anything to do with the play. I’m just thinking about getting back to execution and executing my pitches,” Skenes said. “Nothing matters except for the game and the pitches.”
The right-handed ace issued a walk to Cincinnati’s TJ Friedl before settling into a groove, setting down eight consecutive batters with three strikeouts mixed in. After walking Friedl for a second time in three frames, Skenes surrendered the Reds’ initial hit when Elly De La Cruz connected for a single. Two at-bats later, Nathaniel Lowe drove home De La Cruz with a double, snapping Skenes’ remarkable 31-inning shutout streak versus Cincinnati.
That scoreless stretch ranks as the fourth-longest by any Pirates hurler against a single opponent dating back to 1961. Vernon Law owns the franchise record, blanking the New York Mets across 40 consecutive innings from 1965-66.
Skenes handled four of his final five batters successfully before exiting after 77 pitches, with 51 finding the strike zone.
“Definitely progress. Nice to get some volume and be out there for more than two-thirds,” said Skenes, who now boasts a perfect 5-0 record with a microscopic 0.53 ERA in six career appearances against Cincinnati. He’s accumulated 45 strikeouts against just four walks while limiting the Reds to a .197 batting average.
The Pirates provided excellent offensive backing for their ace, plating three runs in the opening frame on Oneil Cruz’s blast to right field.
“With Skenes on the mound, you hate to give them anything early because you know you’re going to have to fight to get anything you can get,” Reds manager Terry Francona said.
Pirates skipper Don Kelly explained his cautious approach with Skenes’ workload, particularly following the pitcher’s abbreviated 37-pitch, two-thirds-inning performance in last Thursday’s season-opening defeat to the Mets. Skenes surrendered five runs in that 11-7 setback, matching a career-worst while recording two walks and one strikeout.
“When you’re going off one outing and 37 pitches, we had targeted 80 for him,” Kelly said. “It was something that we need Paul for the long haul, and he did a great job getting through five. As we go, he’s going to be throwing more than five (innings) and 77 (pitches).”
Through his initial 57 major league starts, Skenes maintains a 2.10 ERA, which represents the fourth-best mark by any pitcher since 1920. That figure also stands as the lowest by any Pittsburgh pitcher across any 57-start span since Babe Adams posted a 2.06 ERA between 1918 and 1920.
